Driven Snow

Pennymaker Tales, Book 2

By: Tara Lain

Narrated by: Kale Williams

Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

Young Snowden "Snow" Reynaldi is brilliant, beautiful, and alone. Though he's shy, weird, and tolerated by the NorCal University students because he's a renowned whiz at chess and helps put the school on the map, that doesn't keep him from dreaming of the object of his desires: Riley Prince, championship quarterback.

When Riley needs a physics tutor, Snow jumps at the chance, and their relationship heats up - but Riley has to come out of the jock closet to get anywhere. Meanwhile, Snow's one true friend and mentor, Professor Kingsley, marries a woman who secretly wants the chess tournament glory and money for herself. Soon after, the professor collapses and Snow finds himself underwater - literally. In a car!

Seven frat brothers from Grimm College rescue Snow just in time for his life to get even worse, and Snow discovers the one relationship he always wanted slipping away. With evil looming at every turn, Snow must survive if only to prove he's the fairest of them all and regain the trust of his handsome prince.

©2015 Tara Lain (P)2016 Dreamspinner Press

My favorite in this series and wonderful narration

Snow is our geeky, shy, chess playing virgin. He ends up tutoring the closeted
Riley, a football star, in physics.

Both Riley and Snow have been crushing on the other and now they’ve an excuse to meet/hang out.

There’s other drama involving Snow’s chess coach and his new wife….that puts a wrinkle in things and a smear campaign surfaces.


When push comes to shove, will Riley trust Snow or the smear campaign that paints him as a prostitute? Will Riley believe Snow when he says the coach’s new wife is evil? Or will Riley go back to his easy life in the closet?

**

Riley – Riley Prince is his full name – is Snow’s Prince, too. He’s practically perfect in every way.

There is a bit of tongue in cheek in this story and a lot of laughter. Snow is hysterical! His inner monologues are too funny and his nerdisms are perfect!

Riley is simply charming and with one notable exception, pure perfection for shy Snow.

The smexy times are pretty dang hot and the feels are wonderful.

If you put aside your “this is real?” doubts, and just take it for what it is – a fun, fantastical tale with a nod toward the old story – you will fully enjoy it! It’s a New Adult title, so steamy, but not over the top.

Tara Lain is a fantastic writer and this was a fun new look at the old fairy tale.

I loved it and highly recommend it.

4.5 of 5 stars

Audio

Kale Williams does a terrific job with this. He gives the villains appropriately snively type voices and handles the passion and emotions well. Highly recommended as a way to enjoy this story.

5 of 5 stars

A fairy tale story, with a twist.

Would you listen to Driven Snow again? Why?

I sure would, it's a great story, a bit cheesy and predictible but so much fun!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Snow, of course. I love how innocent, naive and almost clueless he was about anything dealing with love. But Prince was an excellent teacher.

What about Kale Williams’s performance did you like?

Everything. There was a wide variety of characters and he made sure each and every character had their own voice and tone.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Snow finally figuring out that wanting to be loved, needing to be loved and actually being loved were all entirely different emotions. And all are valid.

Any additional comments?

I'm loving each new installment in this series, Lain has taken classic fairy tale stories and given them her own modern twist with a distinctly naughty undertone.

Top notch performance of a fun, imaginative story

What made the experience of listening to Driven Snow the most enjoyable?

The narrator - Kale Williams' - ability to capture ALL of the characters' vivid and unique personalities with their own distinct, recognizable voice. There are no caricatures to be heard here, what there is, is a wondrous display of talent by this amazing performer. He kept me listening when I should have been sleeping! :-D

What did you like best about this story?

Tara Lain took a recognizable, familiar story and gave it one heck of an intriguing twist. Snow as a quiet, socially awkward chess champ. Riley Prince as the jock enamored with Snow. The voluptuous and entrancing Anitra as the evil villain our to destroy Snow and usurp his championship position....a group of frat boys coming to the rescue. The fairy tale elements are all there - crafted into a fun, need to know what happens next, contemporary adventure. I appreciate that while Snow is known as intellectual, shy and inexperienced, he is also strong and determined. The author did not write him as a victim or someone in need of rescuing. Snow's relationship with Riley grew at a believable pace and level. They each needed to grow througout the story to be what they needed to be for themselves and for each other - and they did. Lots of great action mixed with solid dialogue, tender moments, and again - a wonderful variety of fully fleshed out characters.

Which character – as performed by Kale Williams – was your favorite?

I would say Snow. The story is told from his POV, and I was rooting for him all the way. Plus, as I've indicated, Snow was somewhat reserved, nerdy, socially awkward. Kale Williams voiced him with a soft-spoken, yet direct intonation that I found perfect for the character's inner strength and yes, gentle nature. Thank goodness he didn't try some whiney, breathy, stereotypical lispy voice. These would not have fit Snow at all. I also enjoyed the nasty Anitra very much. Mr. Williams gave her the perfect inflection of bravado and nastiness, topped off with a dose of snide. I loved the snippy affectations when things didn't go her way!

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

You've never experienced Snow this deep, or a Prince so riled.

5 stars = I freaking LOVED this book!!!

If you could sum up Driven Snow in three words, what would they be?

Entertaining. Amusing, Fairytale.

What other book might you compare Driven Snow to and why?

Modern day version of Snow White & the Seven Dwarves

Have you listened to any of Kale Williams’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not.

Who was the most memorable character of Driven Snow and why?

Snow. It's his story and he's the narrator, so we experience the book from his point of view.

Any additional comments?

I received a free copy of this audiobook to listen to and review for Wicked Reads.

As a rule, I don’t read many modern day takes on classic fairytales – at least not those that make themselves known as such. However, as I’ve recently discovered and enjoyed Lain’s Love in Laguna series, and I found the chess-themed take on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to be intriguing, I decided to give Driven Snow a chance. After spending close to seven hours being entertained by Lain’s writing and Williams’s narration, I’m very glad that I did.

Keeping in mind that this is a m/m variation on Snow White, Lain creates an interesting and entertaining cast of characters that Williams does an excellent job of bringing to life. The young grand master and chess player, Snow, was an immediately likeable character for me. He’s modest in his intelligence and skill and uncomfortable with his beauty (which is commented upon regularly), thus making him a shy yet vulnerable character I couldn’t help but adore. That he was pining for the football team’s quarterback and got the chance to tutor said quarterback, well, I was hooked. Even knowing that this is based on a fairy tale, and knowing that the two will end up together, I found that I was just as enchanted as Snow was when he discovered that his attraction to Riley was not unrequited. Their courtship was sweet and angsty with just the right amount of steam for two college students with limited experience – one because of his nerdom and one because he’s in the closet. As would be expected, the villainess is appropriately over-the-top in what she does to thwart Snow’s path to winning the upcoming chess tournament. And yet, I found it utterly amusing that the organizers of the tournament cared only about Snow’s chess playing skills and the attention he would bring to the sport, and didn’t give a whit about the accusations made about him. Lain’s writing and Williams’s narration had me chuckling, giggling, laughing, sighing, cringing, and falling in love with Snow, Riley, and the wonderful cast of characters who kept me entertained and engaged while I listened to Driven Snow. I’ll be keeping my eye out for the next installment in the series, as well as going back to snag Sinders and Ash for a listen.

Way to easy.

These two guys, Chess nerd and quarterback
fall in deep true love entirely too easy. That part was extremely unrealistic which is what a book like this is about.. falling in love and what continues from there.

No graphic sex… Which is what I like. Sex but not every single detail described. Leave a few things to the imagination.

Love It

I have always loved fairy tales and always will. This story was awesome and the narrator brought the characters to life. Love the voice of Penny maker every time I heard it, it brought a smile 😊 to my face. Thanks for the wonderful story.

Sweet story, good drama

This is #2 in the Pennymaker Tales. Just fun. Of course it is a redo of Snow White.

I recommend book 1 as well (Ash).

Narrator was ok. The characters were voiced as they were—evil, selfish, etc. That took a bit of the fun out of it because I was not able to make those discoveries by myself (though it wouldn’t have taken long anyhow). But overall I’d choose to listen again rather than use text-to-speech (I have low vision).

Another fun fairytale

Yes, it’s a fairytale but it has what’s needed to tell a good story. Brilliant chess player shows a college football quarterback he’s not a dumb jock and can grasp physics.
Love story of two beautiful dudes, scads of great supporting characters, an evil Cruella de NorCal, a fairy godmother, and Mr Pennymaker of course.
Couldn’t turn it off. Kale narration is great

love this series

I've listened to the whole series and I'm relistening now. i can't wait to aquire all of the books. i absolutely need more fairytale gay spinoffs in my life. well written, well paced, and an awesome story i recommend this book whole heartedly.

Fun little fairy tale

Coming after a series of audiobooks that were less than incredible, it was a great relief and sort of a surprise that I enjoyed this fluffy fairy tale remix as much as I did. And when I say "fluffy" I don't mean it's without its trials and tribulations--Snow's low point is certainly VERY low--but it's a well-written piece of candy and doesn't pretend to be anything else.

I bought this audiobook because I like Kale Williams, and he's a wonderful narrator here as he always is. The one issue I had with his performance was that his voice for the villainess is... er, an odd choice. He makes her sound like Thurston Howell, for some unfathomable reason. His voice is so melodic and lovely that I'm more than willing to overlook that.

I'm happy to see that Williams narrates the rest of the series, and I'll definitely be picking them up. Recommended!

I liked it

liked it but I face palmed so many times at how dense the mc was, the clues were all there and he still missed it. the narrator cannot do a woman's voice at all. other than that the plot was pretty good

What an excellent book! I couldn't put it down

Tara Lain has excelled with this story. The characters are all so believable and the narrator does an excellent job. The story is very moving and I found myself in tears at the sad bits, angry at the bad guys and in tears of joy at the happy bits. I will be reading this again!